This blog post is part of a series of MBA profile evaluations called “What are My Chances?” by Michelle Stockman. Michelle, who started consulting for Accepted in 2007 and worked previously in the Columbia Business School admissions office, will provide selected applicants with school recommendation as well as an assessment of their strengths and weaknesses.

-BACKGROUND: 27-year-old Indian male who graduated in 2010 from Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University with an engineering degree. After eight-month search, hired as technical writer for engineering education firm. Switched to multimedia education start-up in 2012, but lost job after company hit cash crisis in 2014. Big impact was leading a social media marketing initiative before being made redundant. Currently looking to start own business.

You’ve been hit by some unfortunate turns in bad luck. You graduated into a still-recovering economy after the 2008 downturn, and got laid off by no fault of your own despite earning promotions along the way.

Right now is not the best time for you to apply to an MBA program. The story you want to tell is: You’re a comeback kid. But you’re currently at the low point of that narrative--the point when you started building toward a better future. Apply when you’re flying high off the rush of a career success. That’s what your competitors will be doing.

The most important thing for you to do right now is to get a job, both for your financial future and for your MBA chances. That can be with an established firm, or in a company that you start yourself as an entrepreneur.

If you eventually want to get into international-level consulting, see what you can do about getting onboard, at a leadership level, with a national or local consultancy dealing with education. Any interaction you have with the national government would be a plus.

You could take the entrepreneurship route, but that’s riskier. Really anyone can start a business. It’s about how successful you make that business, and what kind of wow factor you elicit in the ad comm for the innovation you bring through the product or service you’re bringing to market and how you made that company grow.

-GOALS: Short-term -- Consulting. Long-term: Entrepreneurship

You’ve got your work cut out for you in terms of what you can tell consultants that you bring to the table. You do have some good education development skills. Figure out what you can offer on a technical level, then a policy level. Then do your research to find an MBA program that has a specific focus on the business of education.

-GMAT: 590

Ooh. This score is very low. You’ve got to improve this to have any chance, really, of going to a business school that will be worth your time.

-GPA: 72.5%

This is a solid, respectable GPA. No worries here.

-EXTRACURRICULAR: Volunteered for Times of India “Teach for India” initiative, teaching English to underprivileged kids. Also served as volunteer in 2012 Delhi half marathon and in the 2010 Commonweath Games. Just started a state-wide social initiative for women and girls’ safety.

You spoke to another consultant who said extracurricular activities are just “icing on the cake.” The ad comm first wants to see a solid track record of achievement and leadership in work activities.

In this, I would have to agree. You need to extracurriculars to show you are a well-rounded individual. But unless your activities are absolutely extraordinary, they can’t make up for a less than stellar work record.

-EXTRAS: Studied “Technology Entrepreneurship Online Course” from Stanford University in September 2013.

This is a great MOOC, but I don’t see it having a major impact to make up for other weaknesses in your profile.

-SCHOOLS:

You mentioned Kellogg and Indian School of Business as your target schools. Kellogg has a great education focus that could set you up to enter the type of consultant practice you seek. At IIT you’re sure to get tons of job offers right down your alley. But right now your profile is not competitive enough for either.

And you can become an absolute expert on Columbia admissions by tuning into the Admissions Straight Talk April 22 show, when I will explore CBS MBA admissions with a special focus on JTerm by interviewing representatives from CBS’ MBA admissions office. (Even better: subscribe to AST and then you can’t miss it!)

There will also be an On-Campus Information Session in July for Columbia Jterm applicants. (Registration & exact date TBA).

The application deadline for Columbia Jterm is October 7, 2015.

Can you believe it? The 2014-15 MBA application season isn’t even over, and the next one is beginning. It’s almost like ever-expanding sports seasons. Let the fun begin!

Recommendations are one of the most important factors in the admissions process, and who you choose to write your recommendations will say a lot about your work relationships and experience. A lot of MBA candidates come to me asking whether they can use a college professor, college colleague or co-worker as a recommendation writer. Nine out of ten times, my answer to this question is “no”. To the admissions committee, that choice can mean you lack the needed professional references from the workplace. In turn, this can make the admissions committee believe that you have not performed well enough to have strong support from your professional superiors and colleagues.

Most MBA applications will require two or three recommendation letters. Ideally, you should have two recommendations from professionals who are superior to you in the workplace. If necessary, for the second letter, a letter from a work colleague can be used successfully rather than a letter from a superior, assuming that the letter is written in the right language and emphasizes the topics that business schools most care about.

For business schools that require three recommendations, the third recommendation should preferably add a new element to the candidate that wasn’t explained in any other recommendations. For example, a client, a business partner or colleague from a prior business experience can help to add a different perspective. Alternatively, if you have an outstanding extracurricular activity, you can potentially use a third recommendation from someone you have worked with on a very meaningful, business-relevant extracurricular activity. For example, perhaps you volunteer on the Board of Directors at a non-profit --- this would be an excellent opportunity to use that experience!

Above all, remember that recommendations can make a huge impact on the admissions committee and can make or break a candidate’s chance for admission. Make sure yours are outstanding.

]]>http://gmatclub.com/blog/2014/12/can-one-of-my-co-workers-or-colleagues-be-my-recommendation-writer/feed/0Is Ten Days per Business School Application Enough?http://gmatclub.com/blog/2014/06/is-ten-days-per-business-school-application-enough-2/
http://gmatclub.com/blog/2014/06/is-ten-days-per-business-school-application-enough-2/#commentsMon, 16 Jun 2014 15:30:06 +0000http://gmatclub.com/blog/?p=24349There are a number of steps involved in the MBA application essay writing process: contemplating the questions, choosing the topics, and crafting a collection of short stories that tell a tale and appeal to an admissions committee. Each of these steps takes time. But HOW MUCH time do you actually need? A day? A week? A month?

I think the best way to maximize efficiency is to give yourself plenty of time – about one to two weeks – per application. The following tips should help you get organized:

1. Do the easy stuff first. Before you sit down to focus on your essays, make sure that you’ve already taken care of the application basics – get your GMAT squared away, school selection finalized, transcripts sent out, recommenders lined up, resume polished, etc. There are two benefits to this: First, you’ll be able to focus better on your task at hand after you’ve already crossed off so many things on your to-do list; and second, you’ll have a much clearer idea of your admissions profile once you’ve tackled these objective application elements.
2. Reserve more time for your first application. The first essay and application almost always take the longest to complete. It rarely comes naturally to applicants to think and write about their accomplishments and failures, career background and goals, leadership and teamwork experiences, and turning points in life. Getting used to writing in such a way takes practice. After you’ve forced yourself to think and write in this new way, you’ll find subsequent essays less challenging.
3. Leave time for the tricky ones. There’s always a tricky essay that holds up the schedule, and that essay is different for every applicant. You may be blow through a 500-word career goals essay only to get bogged down in a 200-word culture-shock essay. Mental blocks don’t adhere to a schedule. Be prepared for the unexpected!
4. Understand that life happens. A project at work suddenly requires overtime or travel, a family need suddenly fills a weekend, a recommender suddenly has no time to write a recommendation. Unanticipated events may cause you to put your application on hold, even after diligent and steady progress, leading you to delay submitting several applications until Round 2.

So yes, set a schedule, try to stick to it, but recognize that an application is ready when it’s ready. Recognize that submitting a GREAT application in the second round is far better than submitting a mediocre application in the first round. Mediocrity doesn’t get accepted to top, highly selective business schools.

WRONG! There’s one more thing you need to do, and you should do it NOW, before the adcoms start Googling: Optimize your online presence.

Here are 5 things ways to do it:

1. Google yourself.

If you want to see what they’ll see, start with a simple Google search for your name. Once you see where you have a presence and where you don’t, then you can continue to the next few steps here.

2. Clean up your act.

Your entire application could be 100%, but if the adcoms see your Facebook page littered with inappropriate pictures, your Twitter feed overflowing with obscenities, and that blog post where you rant about items that should never have seen the light of day, much less been published for the world to see, that 720 GMAT score (or other perfect or near-perfect score) might get overlooked.

Lest you think that we think that social media is bad, our next piece of advice here is that you MAKE SURE that you have your social media bases covered. Any tech-savvy, modern applicant should have a LinkedIn and Google+ account, and maybe even Facebook and Twitter.

While you don’t want to get in trouble for overusing and oversharing (see #2), you also don’t want to appear like a caveman totally out of the social media world.

4. Become more findable.

You can optimize other people’s search results for your name by doing a number of quick fixes: First, you can buy your domain name – pick a URL with your name in it and use that site to keep all your social info in one place (i.e. links to your social media profiles on other sites). You can also use About.Me, WordPress, and Tumblr to consolidate your social presence and make yourself easily searchable. Also, by securing clear links for your public profile (by setting up /yourname at the end of a link), you make profile sharing easier and your online presence further optimized.

5. Make what’s found reflect well on you.

It doesn’t have to bore or be professional. You can have passions and other interests. You can even have political opinions or religious beliefs. That’s all fine. Even good. But if you have a few posts, tweets or status updates that don’t reflect well on you and that you can’t get rid of, post new, positive material to push the old stuff down the rankings. Maybe you can’t make it disappear, but you can make it less prominent.

***

So clean up what you can, replace what you can’t, and make your social media presence a plus if an admissions officer decides to google you.

Still not ready to click “Submit”? Don’t submit until you’re confident that you’re presenting the best application possible! Get in touch with us so we can help.

Today’s post comes from Manhattan Review Singapore, a well-known provider of test prep and MBA Admissions Consulting in Singapore for Top Business Schools.

Deciding to go for an MBA is a once-in-a-lifetime commitment. The admissions process is hugely nerve-wracking, fueled by constant news that top schools often reject over 80 percent of their applicants. Applicants are required to do a lot of work and preparation before they even start their application.

A high score in the GMAT is great, up to a point. After that point, a high score becomes irrelevant. However, the application and the interview are most often the deciding factors. The application that is balanced, original and glowing is what you’ll be striving for. Should you make mistakes in the application process, admission officers won’t be too understanding. So have a look at the list Manhattan Review has compiled on the 6 most common mistakes MBA applicants make:

Talk is Cheap.

It’s not enough to describe your outstanding traits and abilities. You have to give specific examples. There are a number of different and creative ways that can demonstrate your leadership skills – from being strategic in your thinking to how you successfully motivate co-workers. Have these examples at your fingertips. And understand that your background plays an important role in illustrating your future potential. Then prove it with excellent examples in your application as well as in your interview.

Did Not Research the School Well Enough.

Not knowing much about a school will show in your application. There's a good deal of data on school websites, but we know from experience that misinformation spreads easily. To that end, schedule a school tour, visit the campus, sit in on a class if you can, talk to current students and even alumni, when possible. The admissions team not only wants to know why you’ve decided to get an MBA, but also why you believe their school is the best place to get it. Further, admission directors know when they receive applications that are "copied and pasted." Neglecting to address the unique requirements of each MBA program is a surefire way to a major rejection. Demonstrate why a particular school is the right one for you along with your being a good fit for the school. Further, the more you know about the school, the better you can link your skills, talents and goals to specific features of the school, for example, you could mention how a certain course will help you in one area.

Poor Recommendations.

Along with your essays, forms and resume, recommendations are a key component of the application. If you're tempted to hand off a blank recommendation sheet to your college professor, you’re not thinking clearly. Instead, show the professor your application (a good chance to get feedback) and provide instances where you exercised leadership skills. The admissions committee culls valuable information from recommenders about an applicant’s job performance, work style, and leadership skills. So be sure to select individuals you believe will devote a good amount of time to their task. And definitely exert influence over the content so the letter illustrates your strengths; plays down your weaknesses; and fully presents an accurate picture of the real you.

Did Not Answer the Questions.

You won’t believe how may applicants fail to follow directions on the application! And this is one good reason why you should not use the same application for different schools. One way to check you’ve answered the question in your essay is to have someone read through it without knowing the original question. That way you can see if the person can guess the nature of the question. In addition, keep your answers interesting and use different approaches but make sure you get the points across. If you can’t follow directions on the application, how will you compete as an MBA student? To answer a question about your future plans, here’s a great tip: outline a future scenario where you already have your MBA. Detail how you arrived there and where you’re heading. Originality will set your application apart.

Failed to Address Weaknesses.

You don't have to be the perfect candidate, but don't think you can gloss over shortcomings on your record. Admissions committees are made up of people, who are understanding when it comes to a few glitches, so be sure to have reasonable explanations. Excuses are not explanations. If you offer an excuse you appear unwilling to accept responsibility for those shortcomings. You might want to mention ways in which you are presently working to turn a weakness into a strength moving forward. The best advice is to address things head-on, otherwise you give the committee the opportunity to come to their own conclusions that could be dangerous in the scheme of things.

Arrogant Behavior.

Business schools highly value conduct and character. Often times confidence can be mistakenly interpreted as arrogance. So tread lightly here. High expectations exist for those accepted into MBA programs. Less-than-polite or juvenile behavior is offensive and unacceptable when you’re interacting with the MBA admissions office. Be courteous, accommodating, and professional to all you encounter. According to experts, admissions committees are ready to see something different. Your conduct, character and behavior could be your ticket to your first choice school.

While no candidate is perfect, minimizing any red flags in your application will give you a better shot at admission. So set aside some time for heavy thinking; avoid the 6 most common mistakes; and practice! There is no better prep for a solid, strategic, and exceptional application.

We recommend that you attend our free interactive MBA Admissions Webinars where you gain lots of further useful insight into the MBA Admissions process from our consultants who have worked on the other side of the table and evaluated candidates for top business schools. Good luck with your conquest for an MBA!

]]>http://gmatclub.com/blog/2013/06/get-the-directions-to-destination-mba-webinar-tomorrow/feed/0Harvard Business School 2014 MBA Application Tipshttp://gmatclub.com/blog/2013/06/harvard-business-school-2014-mba-application-tips/
http://gmatclub.com/blog/2013/06/harvard-business-school-2014-mba-application-tips/#commentsThu, 13 Jun 2013 16:20:06 +0000http://gmatclub.com/blog/?p=19003Harvard Business School MBA Admissions Director Dee Leopold is once again shaking up the admission world. With the 2013-14 Harvard MBA application she is simultaneously demanding less and much more of applicants: Fewer essays. Fewer words. Fewer characters. More thought. More brevity. And as much substance as you can cram into the responses limited not to to a few hundred words, but to a few hundred characters.

If any of you think creating a compelling HBS app will be easy, think again.

Required Portions

The required portions represent what Harvard wants to know about you. The HBS admissions committee is quite clear and specific about what it wants to know. And how much it wants to know. Please realize that your resume and the boxes are now the heart of your application

Before you begin completing the application, first review Harvard’s three criteria for admission. Write your descriptions and response so that you show these qualities:

Because of the brevity required – most of the longer answers have a 500-character limit -- you must be succinct:

• Focus on business and leadership achievements, not technical feats.
• Don’t merely describe your responsibilities; highlight your accomplishments– where you have made a difference, where you have gone above and beyond the expected, the typical, and the ordinary.
• Quantify as much as possible.
• Write tight.

The Optional Essay: (No word limit)

“You’re applying to Harvard Business School. We can see your resume, school transcripts, extra-curricular activities, awards, post-MBA career goals, test scores and what your recommenders have to say about you. What else would you like us to know as we consider your candidacy?”

Now what else – really and truly -- do you want HBS to know about you? The HBS admissions committee has told you what it wants to know. That’s in the required sections of the application. What do you want the HBS readers to know?

The answer to that question is not something I can give or even suggest to you in a blog post aimed at the many. (For individual advice, please see Accepted’s MBA Admissions Consulting.) It should be different for each of you. Again, refer to the HBS criteria, as you contemplate possible topics, but the options are infinite. A few possibilities:

• Context for events described in the required elements.
• Motivations for the decisions or commitments you have made.
• Challenges you have faced.
• Something you would like to do at HBS.
• More depth on an activity or commitment that is particularly important to you.

Please don’t limit yourself to these suggestions. I am offering them to stimulate your creativity, not to shut it down.

Some of you may wonder if you should write this essay given that it is optional. If you don’t have anything to say, say nothing. Nonetheless, I can’t believe that accomplished, remarkable people have nothing valuable to add to the required portions of Harvard’s application. Persuasive, impressive essays simply give Harvard more reasons to accept you, and you should want them to have those reasons. On the other hand, if you slap together something hastily or rehash or copy-and-paste another school’s essay, then you run the risk of actually reducing the quality of your application. Bottom line: Make it worth reading. Write a thoughtful essay that reflects you and complements the required components.

Since I’ve been in MBA admissions consulting (almost 20 years now), HBS has valued concision. And, in today’s tweet- and sound-bite-driven world, it is requiring even shorter responses, at least in the required portion of the application. Don’t take the absence of a word limit on the optional essay as a license for verbosity. Say what you have to say succinctly. Make every word count. If you must pull a number out of me, don’t go over 800 words. And if you can say what you need to say in less than 800 words, do so.

A few caveats and warnings on the essay. It is not:

• Stanford’s “what matters most to you and why?”
• The kitchen sink in which you throw everything.
• An autobiography.

Interview Reflections

On a personal note: While I have no way to know if anyone at Harvard read my post proposing an effective revealing MBA application -- and Harvard’s 2013-14 app is certainly quite different from what I proposed -- the idea of writing about the three most meaningful experiences in greater depth is something I suggested then.

As an MBA applicant, are you aware of the difference between tasks and skills? Equally importantly, do you understand how focusing on skills rather than tasks in your MBA admissions essays can help you present a much more compelling application?

To illustrate what a task is, consider an example when an engineer needs to improve a product’s reliability and therefore leads a team to perform 5-6 different types of tests on the product. Their task is to complete the tests and improve the reliability. But if you write an essay about the tasks alone, you will fail to present a strong essay.

What is important in the MBA admissions process is not that you successfully ran the appropriate tests, which was one of your tasks. Rather, what is important are the skills that allowed you to lead a team to understand the designated goals, to identify the tests to be conducted, to delegate work in ways that optimized the team's performance, to set forth a plan of action, to problem solve effectively, etc. Similarly, the investment banking analyst who has designed an innovative new analytical model should not focus too much on the specifics of the model, but on the skills that allowed him/her to create a blueprint for the model, secure input, gain buy-in, present his/her findings effectively, etc.

Focus on the skills behind your work—these can include analytical, leadership, teamwork, communication and problem solving skills. If the admissions committee believes you have mastered these skills, it is much more likely to believe that you are ready to both learn from and contribute to business school. You should be a much more attractive candidate.